Why Eugene Katchalov won't be playing the WSOP
In today's Daily Rewind we find out why Eugene Katchalov is missing the WSOP and Gus Hansen has one of his biggest ever losing days.
Katchalov to miss the WSOP
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| Eugene's ready for his close up |
Despite enjoying a rush of form that saw him finish 19th in the latest $10,300 SCOOP Main Event, Eugene Katchalov won't be trying parlay his $36,463 winnings into something more at the WSOP.
According to a recent interview with iGaming.org, the Ukrainian born pro will be missing out on this summer's festivities in order to take part in a TV show.
Since moving to the US as a child Eugene has helped raise the profile of poker in Ukraine and his appearance in an as yet unnamed TV show is just another example of that.
Because of the demands of the show most of Eugene's summer will be taken up by filming, but it doesn't seem to be too much of a concern for the PokerStars pro:
"I agreed upon doing a national TV show months ago, knowing it would cost me most of the summer. As much as I hate missing [the WSOP], it does take place every year. I'll definitely be back in 2015."
Online poker isn't addictive
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| Another positive for poker |
A Norwegian study into the effects of problem gambling has shown that poker is a low risk activity.
Conducted by the Norwegian Lotteries and Gambling Authority and brought to light by Pokerfuse, the report surveyed 10,000 gamblers and found that only 4.7% had played online poker and that 0.2% had made large wagers ($4,600+) in the last 12 months.
Beyond this, researchers at The University of Bergen used the Canadian Problem Gambling Index to determine how potentially addictive the game is.
After analysing the data they discovered that online poker scored 1.09 out of 10, which is significantly lower than other gambling activities such as bingo (8.33).
News that online poker is a low risk endeavour when it comes to addiction is certainly a positive step the game's image in both Norway and the industry as a whole.
Good vs. Evil
Poker parody king SrslySirius has been at it again recently with another comical swipe at some of the game's biggest adversaries.
Dubbed 'Pokerman' and based on Mike McDermott from Rounders and Neo from the Matrix, the writer's latest character has been created to fight against the evil forces waging war against online poker.
Featuring cameos from Sheldon 'Bane' Adelson, Teddy KGB and Chris 'Card Thrower' Ferguson, the video is very funny and we can only hope SrslySirius decides to make it into a complete movie.
Question of the Day
"Why do you think online poker achieved such a low score on the risk of addiction survey conducted by Norwegian researchers?"
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The Gus Hansen profit train came to a grinding halt last night after he lost virtually all of the money he made on Sunday and Monday. After grinding through 4,388 hands, the Danish pro eventually logged off with a $1,169,195 deficit; a loss which made him yesterday's biggest loser by a margin of almost $1 million.
After moving from table-to-table, Hansen's biggest single losing round of action came during a $1,500/$3,000 Mixed game where he lost $302,124 over the course of 605 hands.
Benefitting the most from Hansen's latest downswing was Alex Luneau. The French pro managed to scoop $318,109 to finish ahead of hasufly and Viktor Blom on the profit leaderboard.
Daily Signoff
For today's Daily Signoff we see future TV star Eugene Katchalov extract maximum value with pocket aces against Sam Trickett.
Yesterday's Daily Rewind: Gus celebrates a $1.2 million upswing
 Daniel Smyth has been working in the poker industry for six years as both a player and writer. He currently has a costly penchant for PLO and provides daily content for PokerStrategy.com. You can learn more about Daniel by clicking here.
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